There are a wide variety of electrical connectors which are adapted for mounting to a printed circuit board and interconnecting the terminals of a connector to the circuit traces on the board. One type of such a connector is mounted to one side or surface of the board. The terminals, themselves, may be interconnected, as by soldering, to surface contact pads on the board, or the terminals may have solder tails for projecting through holes in the board for soldering to circuit traces on the board or in the holes.
Most such electrical connectors have some form of board mounting system or devices for retaining a connector on a printed circuit board, such devices often being called "board locks". These devices often include board-locking pegs projecting through mounting holes in the circuit board, the pegs often being bifurcated to define a pair of resilient legs having hook portions for locking the connector to the board. Such board locks may be provided as permanent locking devices, or they may be provided as temporary retaining means to maintain a proper position of the connector during soldering of the terminals to the contact pads or circuit traces on the board.
One of the problems with board mounting devices or "board locks" of the character described above, is in maintaining the devices in firm positions on the connector so that the connector does not move during soldering operations. A loose mounting or an imprecise mounting of the connector on the circuit board can result in unacceptable or defective interconnections between the connector terminals and the contact pads or circuit traces on the board. Heretofore, considerable efforts have been made in concentrating on the structure of the mounting pegs of the board locks in order to achieve proper connector positioning. However, even if the mounting pegs are firmly and properly locked to the board, the connector still may be loose or out of position if the mounting device, itself, is not firmly positioned on the connector.
Another consideration in designing board mounting devices or board locks of the character described above, involves simplicity and rendering such connector assemblies cost effective. Sometimes, the provision of board mounting devices add considerably to either the costs of the connector assembly, itself, or to the costs in assembling or manufacturing the assembly. This invention is directed to solving these problems by providing a very functionally effective as well as a very cost effective printed circuit board mounting device for such electrical connectors.